Emily in Cursive

Before you start, here is what is in the name. These facts come from the letters themselves, using the same school-style cursive model as the drawing above.

Emily is written with 5 letters: E, m, i, l, y. The picture shows each different letter on its own, with the shape to aim for. The table below it lists every join in order, so you can see where the pen has to travel between letters.

The joins, one by one

A join is the connecting stroke between two letters. Where it starts depends on the letter you just finished, and where it ends depends on the letter coming next. This table follows the school-style model used for the drawings on this site; some programs use slightly different joins.

The capital E

The capital E is two stacked curves, like a backward 3, with a small loop where they meet. Make the lower curve a little larger than the upper one and finish it on the baseline, because that finishing stroke is what carries you into the m. If your E ends in the air, the join to the m will look like a separate stroke.

The m has three humps, not two

Emily has an m with three humps. The humps should be the same width and the same height, and each one should come down to the baseline before it climbs again. A quick check is to count: up-over, up-over, up-over, then the pen slides into the i. Two humps turns the m into an n, and four turns it into a wave.

i, l and y are three narrow letters in a row

After the m the name runs i, l, y. The i is a short stroke with a dot, the l is a tall narrow loop, and the y is a round letter whose tail loops under the line. The usual problem is that the loop of the l gets too short and looks like an e, or too fat and looks like a b. Keep the l two to three times as tall as the i and about as narrow as a pencil lead on its side.

These are the slips that show up most often with this name. Check your own lines against the list before you move on.

• Writing a two-hump m. Count three before you leave the letter.
• An l that is too short. If it does not reach the top line it will be read as an e.
• A y with no loop in the tail. A straight tail is fine in print but breaks the flow in cursive.
• Placing the i dot too early. Add it after the whole name so the pen does not stop in the middle of a word.

Start with the middle of the name. Write the string mi on its own ten times, then ily, then the whole name. Do the capital E separately on a full line, because it is the only letter that is larger than the others. When the name feels steady, shrink it to half size, since small Emily is where the y tail tends to collapse. For a longer run, the 30-day plan has a week for names.

The one-page PDF has the name once in black as a model, two grey rows to trace, a blank ruled row and the short forms of Emily to trace underneath. It prints on Letter or A4. For another name or a full class set, use the worksheet generator, and for blank ruled paper see cursive lined paper.

Em, Emmy and Millie are the common short forms. Em is only a capital E and an m, so it is the quickest way to practise the first join. Emmy brings back the m shapes and ends in a y, which makes it a small version of the full name. Millie swaps the E for an M and adds a tall l and i, so it is a good second target once Emily feels steady.

Emily is usually traced to the Latin family name Aemilius, with Aemilia as its feminine form. Some sources connect it with a Latin word for rivalry, but that link is debated and nobody should treat it as settled. The name became common in English-speaking countries long ago and has never fully gone out of use.

Two well-known bearers are the poet Emily Dickinson (1830 to 1886) and the novelist Emily Brontë, whose Wuthering Heights appeared in 1847. Both wrote in an era when cursive was the standard hand, so seeing the name in a flowing script suits it.